OSU Open Source Lab taps former Google manager for leadership position

10/07/2010

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSL) has hired a software industry leader whose experience includes work with Google, the GNOME Foundation and other concerns to serve as the lab’s open source outreach manager.

An internationally known speaker and advocate for open source software development methodologies and community practices, Leslie Hawthorn brings more than 10 years experience in project management, marketing and public relations to her new role. She previously worked as a program manager at Google Inc., where she was responsible for the company’s open source outreach efforts, most notably the Google Summer of Code program and Google Highly Open Participation Contest.

Hawthorn has been honored with the 2010 OSCON Open Source Award and the 2010 National Center for Open Source in Education Award. She serves on the NSF/CPATH Steering Committee for the Humanitarian FOSS Project and on the editorial board for Open Source Business Resource. She has previously served on the advisory board for the GNOME Foundation and most recently on the Program Committee for the first ever open source track at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing.

“We are thrilled that Leslie Hawthorn has joined the Oregon State University Open Source Lab,” said Terri Fiez, head of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Her extensive experience with managing programs that introduce students to open source software development will be a great asset to the university and will support our new open source curriculum.”

Leslie’s duties will include developing new programs to increase awareness and adoption of open source development in the undergraduate and graduate levels. As part of her immediate efforts, Leslie will join forces with Deborah Bryant, public sector communities manager, to focus on outreach for GOSCON, the Government Open Source Conference scheduled for Oct. 27-28 in Portland. She will also be working on marketing and fundraising efforts for OSL, which serves more than 100 significant open source communities and more than 6 million software downloads per day.

“The addition of a full-time, committed professional focused on outreach came in response to a tremendous demand for Open Source Labs services and expertise,” said Curt Pederson, chief information officer and vice provost for Information Services at for OSU. “The global open source community – in academia, industry and government -- provides a rich model for innovation through collaboration, in keeping with the university’s land-grant mission to build community. The Open Source Lab is one of OSU’s premier contributors to this communal conversation.”

About the OSU Open Source Lab:The Oregon State University Open Source Lab is the home of growing, high-impact open source communities. Its world-class hosting services enable the Linux operating system, Apache web server, the Drupal content management system and more than 50 other leading open source software projects to collaborate with contributors and distribute software to millions of users globally. Through custom software development, vendor partnerships and industry events like the Government open source Conference (GOSCON), the Lab's staff and students encourage open source adoption in education, government, health care and other sectors. For more information, visit http://osuosl.org/. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Drupal is a trademark of Dries Buytaert. Google Summer of Code and the Google Highly Open Participation Contest are trademarks of Google. Other company and project names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and projects.